Garage Sale!

Spring is here, and it's time to clean out the closets!
The group is fund raising for the trip, so it is the perfect opportunity for a garage sale. We are selling everything that nobody wants - because somebody else does want it!

Thank you Ben for the use of your house, a prime location!

Thank you to everyone who has helped with the garge sale! Last week we earned $700.

Letter from Joel, Feb. 26th

I did get to go to Jaen (finally) and look at a couple of projects for you guys. I went with the Superentendant up there, and we decided that you should work in a little town called Puerto Chinchipe. I will try and post some pictures of what they have right now for a church. It is a small church that hasn't been going very long. It has about 15 members, most of them are widowed ladies, but they have managed to raise $5,000 and buy a lot with some adobe buildings on it that they are using for a church. They have also managed to have some plans drawn up for a new building, and have all the rebar that they will need. So basically, if we were able to put up columns, walls, roof and floor, they would have a church. The superintendant figures that about $10,000 should pretty much complete the project. If everything goes well, I think we will try and get a local contractor going on the project and try and have a foundation and walls put up by the time you guys get here. Then the group can pour columns, put a roof on, and if there is time/money pour a floor. If I understand things right, the only other church in Puerto Chinchipe is the Roman Catholic, and it is right across the street from the Nazarene church. They were telling me that Puerto Chinchipe is the trading post for about 20 smaller communities out in the woods, and that it is a very strategic location for a protestant church, because everyone from the surrounding area goes there sooner later. Puerto Chinchipe is definately out in the sticks. It is about 3 hours from Jaen. I think we will try and rent the school building to sleep in. We might wind up taking baths out of a bucket, and sleeping on the floor - we will be roughing it a little bit.

A letter from Joel, Feb 11th

Joel Smith is our contact in Peru, and is organizing the project while we are down there. We wanted to post a little bit about him, as it is important to know what this trip is all about. From Joel:

We are Special Assignment missionaries with the Church of the Nazarene. Special Assignment means that you are given a short term contract for a specific job. In our case we are assigned to work with Work and Witness teams (like you guys). Our job with Work and Witness is to identify constructioin projects in Peru that meet the criteria, and to promote those projects to potential teams from the States. Once a team from the States has commited to a specific project, it is our job to coordinate their logistics, construction materials, tourist activities, etc. and make sure they have a good time while they are here. About 2 weeks ago we got "official" word that we are also going to be in charge of about 6 construction projects in the Southern part of Peru. It looks like we are going to be moving to Arequipa for the next year and a half. This is going to be with another "branch" of the Nazarene church called "Extreme Nazarene Ministries". They are going into some of the more unreached areas of Peru, where basically the only religious influence is Roman Catholic, in some cases mixed with local pagan beliefs. In this case I am going to be in charge of Peruvian construction teams, so it is going to be different from Work and Witness. It is going to be my responsibility to make sure each project is completed to the point that it can be finished by teams of Americans. That is pretty much what I do officially. Unoficially we have done some youth activities at the church we attend in Chiclayo, and every once in a while they badger me into preaching. I have never considered myself a preacher, but am beginning to believe the pastor in Chiclayo. He says the Church isn't made up of construction projects, but of people, and if you aren't preaching to people one way or another, you aren't really doing your job as a Christian.

Planning stages

March 20

The group met together at a coffee ship in CDA. A large mission trip like this will not happen without lots of planning. Mandy has been working hard on organizing different activities for fund raising, as well as coordinating plans with Joel, our contact down in Peru.

Some of the things discussed at tonight's meetings:

Church sponsorship, fund raisers, letters for the individual team members, and travel itinerary.

All of these things seem insignificant compared to the work that will be done in Peru, but all are important to be able to make this trip successful.

There was also discussion on what our misistry will entail while we are down there. It is a great opportunity to be able to build a church, but our goal is not to just put up a building and leave. God did not tell us to go and put up church buildings in all the world, He commanded us to make disciples. Please pray for God's leading in this area. We want to show God's love to the lost, and make disciples!

The First Post

Hello team and all. Here is the first blog of the site. Lance and Aaron are chillin at Java on Sherman and setting this up. This is the idea for the blog: It is the place to go to learn about who is on the team, what the trip is about, where we are financially. Prayer requests and updates will be posted as well. You will notice there are some tools here for you and anyone else interested to use check them out. There is a followers page sign up if you want to keep up with our team events in progress. In the end we will post letters from each team member photos and what was accomplished while on our adventure. Each person has a blog post for review, if you want to track individual team members. Just click on profile information and find the profile you want to view.